Icicles
by Trebla
Summary: The heater is broken in the Kurosaki house and winter is on the rise. What will poor Rukia do, shivering in Ichigo's closet?


my grandparents are so abrupt with their texts. at least my grandma bothers to spell out "thanks" yeesh, youd think my grandpa was some kind of teenage dumbass or something...

this is what i do when i'm supposed to be working.

:D

* * *

It was cold. Really, really cold. Rukia shivered and pulled the thin blanket farther over her head, trying to conserve what little warmth she currently had.

It was winter... or it was trying to be. There was no snow no the ground yet, but it regularly dropped below freezing point, and frost would form on rooftops and windows every morning when she woke for school.

It was a weekend, luckily, otherwise Rukia would be in serious trouble. She knew it was very, very late, but her shivering kept her awake and unable to slip into dreamland.

Why was it so cold? Rukia cursed the fact that Ichigo's father seemed to take a ridiculously long time to fix anything; once, Ichigo had told her about the leak in the ceiling of their kitchen, and how his father had taken at least a month to go up on the roof and fix it.

It was obvious the heater was broken beyond repair, but the bearded doctor seemed oblivious to the metaphoric icicles hanging on the ceiling. "It's perfectly fine!" he would boom, grinning widely. "It's just a little chill; don't tell me you can't handle it, Ichigo!"

That little jibe, of course, would always set the strawberry-headed teen off, and the two would end up having a wrestling match in the kitchen. Men. Rukia snorted at their antics.

The twins were smart enough to realize that their father would not be attending to the homemade blizzard anytime soon, and were wisely spending the night at someone else's house. Ichigo, however, was not quite so intelligent, and so Rukia was freezing as a result.

"Men...!" she grumbled to herself, her teeth chattering. She would probably freeze to death before the night was over, and Ichigo would wake up to a Rukia-cicle gathering dust in his closet.

Did icicles gather dust? Rukia wondered vaguely, forcing her eyes shut and clamping her teeth on their annoying chattering. Or maybe the dust that landed on the icicle would simply freeze and become a part of the icicle itself, thereby making the icicle grow in size...and then, it might take over the world...! Dusty icicles attacking, their devastatingly slow but sure movement freezing the world like ice pops in a freezer. Or Pop Tarts. Pop Tarts were nice when they were frozen...but not when they were dusty...

Some small part of the frozen shinigami's mind realized that she was probably becoming loopy from the chill that was creeping into her bones, but the rest of her body just shrugged that nagging worry off. No big deal, so what if she froze? That's what hairdryers were for...

"Rukia?" A drowsy and somewhat annoyed voice drifted into the ebony-haired girl's mind. "Are you alright?"

Rukia would've liked to turn and face Ichigo, but her body didn't seem to agree with that notion. So instead, she lay and shivered, her teeth once again chattering loudly.

"I could hear you from across the room...Jesus, you're freezing..." There was the sensation of being touched, but Rukia was still too numb to really feel it. She was moved and laid on something that was much softer than the uncomfortable shelf which she had slept on for so long.

Forcing her sleepy eyes to stay open, Rukia stared at Ichigo as he awkwardly clambered into the bed with her, decidedly avoiding contact with her eyes as he did so. This made Rukia want to laugh, but all she could really manage was a more violent shiver.

"If you'd been so cold, why didn't you say anything?" Ichigo demanded, more awake now that the shock of such a cold body next to his was sinking in. "I know it's cold, but I hadn't realized it was _that _cold..."

Clumsily, and with much hesitation, as though she would stop him- as if she could!- Ichigo put his arms around the Rukia-cicle and pulled her closer. His warm breath melted the icy skin over her face, and a slow, tingling sensation began from her toes and started to work its way up her body.

"Thank you..." Rukia managed to whisper, her eyes closing in contentment. She liked having Ichigo hold her, she decided. Things would be terribly awkward tomorrow, but until then, she could relax and enjoy the moment.

Ichigo relaxed too, now that he had apparently received permission from Rukia herself to continue holding her, and he whispered back, "You're welcome. Good night, Rukia."

"Good night..."

Outside, thick, white flakes of ice began to fall from the sky, caressing the ground gently as they landed. The temperature dropped still further, but the two souls sharing body heat didn't seem to mind. Rukia sighed happily and nestled closer to Ichigo. The strawberry blonde smiled softly in the darkness, and one hand came up to stroke the soft strands of raven hair.

Rukia felt herself slipping quietly into sleep, and with her last conscious thought, she smiled.

_Thank goodness his father never fixes things..._


End file.
